RCMP investigating two more men with suspected ties to Calgary who left to fight in Syria: community

CALGARY — The RCMP is investigating two more men with suspected ties to Calgary who allegedly left Canada to participate in the Syrian civil war, according to community members.

Both men are from Windsor, Ont., but are believed to have spent time in Calgary, where counter-terrorism investigators have been asking questions about at least ten jihadist recruits.

Two RCMP officers from Ontario travelled to Calgary in late May as part of their investigation of the Windsor men, said Abdulla Barahim, president of the Islamic Information Society of Calgary.

He said the officers showed him photos of the pair but he did not recognize them. The society operates a downtown prayer centre next to an apartment building where the circle of extremists once met.

The police force declined to comment. “The RCMP continues to monitor the issue of Canadians going abroad to participate in terrorism-related activities, and when warranted, we commence the appropriate criminal investigations,” said Sgt. Greg Cox.

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But shown a photo of Ahmad Waseem, Mr. Barahim confirmed he was one of the Windsor men the RCMP had asked about. The National Post revealed last month that Mr. Waseem, 26, was wanted by police.

Posts on Mr. Waseem’s Facebook page suggest he spent time in Alberta in 2010 and 2011. After initially travelling to Syria, he was injured and recouped in Windsor, where he had graduated from a Catholic school near his parents’ home.

Upon his return, his mother took away his passport and the imam and directors at the Windsor mosque counselled him against rejoining the Syrian conflict. The RCMP also visited the mosque to speak to youths.

Despite the community-wide effort, Mr. Waseem disappeared and is now once again in Syria. An Aug. 4 post on his Twitter account showed a bloodied man strung up by his feet. “This is how we were celebrating Eid,” he wrote of the Muslim holiday. Police have charged him with passport fraud.

Another Windsor man has also been charged with a passport-related offence. Mohammed Monir El Shaer, 26, is accused of making a false statement on a Citizenship and Immigration Canada questionnaire “for the purpose of procuring a passport for himself.”

The offence allegedly occurred in Turkey on Dec. 17, 2013, court records show. He has since returned to Windsor and declined to comment. He faces up to two years imprisonment if convicted.

The charge, filed on June 23, did not mention Syria and the case is still at an early stage. Patrick Ducharme, Mr. El Shaer’s lawyer, said he had not yet seen any evidence alleging the case was associated with the Syrian conflict.

“I understand they’re saying there’s this link but I don’t know that because I don’t have all the disclosure yet,” he said. In the Ontario Court of Justice on Tuesday, the case was put over until Sept. 2.

More than 100 Canadians have left the country to join Islamist extremist groups in Syria and elsewhere, fuelling concerns they could return to Canada, bringing their militant ideology and violence with them.

About 30 have gone to Syria, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, some to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), which has been widely condemned for using mass executions and beheadings to impose its inhumane version of Islamic law.

But so far only one Canadian has been charged with terrorism stemming from the Syrian conflict. Hasibullah Yusufzai, 25, a former British Columbia security guard, faces up to 14 years if convicted.

While the jihadist recruits have come from B.C. and Ontario, many have been linked to Calgary, where police have been asking about between 10 and 16 men. Authorities have also been probing a suspected facilitator active in the city.

The Calgary network included Salman Ashrafi, a former Talisman Energy employee who friends said came to believe he could no longer live in a non-Muslim country like Canada. He allegedly died last November while carrying out a suicide bombing in Iraq.

Damian Clairmont, who converted as a teen, was unemployed and collecting assistance from an Alberta program for those with severe disabilities. He was killed by a rival Syrian rebel faction in January.

Last week, reports on social media claimed that Farah Shirdon had died in Iraq. The former Calgary movie theatre employee had called the beheading of religious minorities “a beautiful thing” on Twitter and threatened Canada in an online propaganda video. His reported death, like the others, remains unconfirmed.

In both Calgary and Windsor, mosque officials have been co-operating with police and working to dissuade youths from falling for the extremist ideology that is pervasive on the Internet.

“Our message to the youth has been crystal clear: if someone is telling you that you will go to paradise by blowing yourself up in a plane, a train or a public place, taking your life and the lives of innocent people, then he is misleading you,” Hacene Chebbani, an imam at the Islamic Information Society of Calgary, said in a recent statement.